One of the parks, Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior, is accessible only by ferry or seaplane. / Ellen Creager/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Washington Staff

WASHINGTON — A U.S. senator from Oklahoma, railing at what he considers misplaced priorities and self-serving parochialism in the operation of the National Park Service, zeroed in on two Michigan landmarks as being among the “more egregious, wasteful or otherwise questionable expenses” to be found across the U.S.

Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior — accessible only by ferry or seaplane — and Keweenaw National Historic Park, which stretches across several historical copper mining sites in the Upper Peninsula, were among the dozens of parks Republican Sen. Tom Coburn criticized as either inaccessible or created just to satisfy political desires.

“Our elected representatives have been too focused on their own parochial political interests to see the state of disrepair that has befallen some of our greatest national treasures,” Coburn wrote. “There is, after all, no ribbon-cutting ceremony for taking out the trash, fixing a broken railing or filling a pothole.”

The report is like others issued by Coburn, who issues an annual report on what he considers the most egregious examples of government waste.

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Michigan members of Congress fired back, saying that the Up North landmarks are key not only to the local economy but of a landscape that has been praised for its beauty and history. The Upper Peninsula has figured in the state’s Pure Michigan travel campaign, which has garnered national attention.

“Preserving natural treasures, including our wilderness areas and our important cultural legacies, isn’t a mistake,” said U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. “It’s right at the heart of our national park system’s mission and of who we are as a people.”

The Detroit lawmaker called Coburn’s suggestion that the two aren’t worthy of preservation “way off target.”

Kyle Bonini, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Dan Benishek, a Republican from Crystal Falls whose district includes the two parks, said both are part of an area where outdoor recreation pumps the local economy.

Coburn also argued that ongoing land acquisition helps to exacerbate the maintenance backlog at “crown jewels” such as Yosemite, Yellowstone and the National Mall, and pointed out that $5.2 million has been set aside to purchase 37 acres of land for Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to minimize commercial and residential development.

“The NPS will need an additional $9.2 million to complete the land-acquisition plan to stem the trophy home threat,” he said.

Michelle Begnoche, a spokeswoman for Pure Michigan, noted that Sleeping Bear Dunes, in the northwest Lower Peninsula, was named the most beautiful place in America by viewers of ABC’s “Good Morning America” and is a large tourism draw in the state.

The two Upper Peninsula parks, of course, are not on the same scale as iconic national parks. While visitors to Keweenaw’s various sites are not tracked, remote Isle Royale saw only 16,746 visitors in 2012 — making it the least visited park in the lower 48 states. Coburn said, together, the parks cost about $6 million a year and have their own maintenance backlogs of about $30 million.

Coburn’s report said the Keweenaw park’s creation was “pushed by a powerful senator” — Levin was one of the key backers in 1992 — “to revitalize an area left in decay after the collapse of the copper boom.” The report goes on to say that the region “has moved from mining copper to mining federal largess.”

Meanwhile, the report said, travelers to Isle Royale must either pay for a $120 round-trip ferry ticket or take a plane — which adds to the “steep price” they must pay as taxpayers to keep the park running.

Coburn is recommending reforming the Park Service, changing its fee structures, eliminating programs and reviewing “the choices of past Congresses to establish park units that may not fit the criteria of what the average American would expect of a national park area.”

Dianne Peterson, president of the board of the Keweenaw Convention & Visitors Bureau in Calumet, said the Up North experience is about more than the number of people who show up.

“You get an experience you wouldn’t get on a drive in (another) national park,” she said. “Losing some of these areas would be detrimental to America.”